Die cast with a vengeance

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. -- Dan Spaulding's toy car collection lines the walls of his basement yet hardly stops there. It hangs from the rafters, covers portions of his basement floor, overflows several bookshelves, and gleams from inside custom-made display cases.

Pretty much any object stamped with the Hot Wheels logo can be found in Spaulding's private subterranean museum in his home in northwestern Rhode Island. Die-cast cars by the thousands, of course, carefully preserved in their original packaging. But also bubble bath, breakfast cereal, clothing, toothbrushes, a pinball game, and dozens more specimens of Hot Wheels memorabilia, many valued at several hundred dollars apiece.

Spaulding guesses he owns more than 14,000 pieces altogether, although he's never completed a precise count.

"I love it when other collectors look around and their jaws drop," says Spaulding, 41, an auto mechanic, weekend drag racer, and National Guardsman with two tours of duty in Iraq under his belt.

Spaulding, who admits his hobby has grown into "an obsession" since he began collecting in 1988, will have a chance to rub elbows with plenty of fellow collectors over the coming week, an unusually busy one for grown - ups who never outgrew their fascination with American car culture, miniature-sized, and who've turned that childhood interest into a full-blown Hot Wheels fetish.

Tomorrow , the Rhode Island Hot Wheels Club holds its third annual expo and dinner, in Johnston . In what is billed as the largest such gathering on the East Coast, at least 400 enthusiasts are expected to attend, according to club president Jim Lombari . The daylong event features raffles, a charity auction, custom car contest, Hot Wheels races, and display tables full of collectibles. Each guest at tomorrow's dinner will receive -- among other goodies -- a limited-edition, specially customized Hot Wheels 1956 Ford panel truck with RIHWC decal for their $75 ticket fee.

On Wednesday, collectors from around the country, Spaulding among them, will motor into Dearborn, Mich., for a five-day convention considered the Super Bowl for Hot Wheels hobbyists. Besides round-the-clock trading and selling, there will be guest speakers, seminars on collecting, and autograph sessions with celebrity designers like Mattel's Larry Wood .

The opportunity to obtain a limited-edition toy car or two is a big reason collectors flock to these events.

"Don't miss the amazing Custom Mustang we'll be trotting out in Spectraflame red with opening hood and Red Line wheels," chirps the convention website. No further explanation is needed for anyone wired into the Hot Wheels commodities market. To illustrate how hot that market can get, a mint-condition, pink-colored 1969 Volkswagen Beach Bomb minibus with rear-loading surfboards has sold for a record $72,000 -- a princely sum for a car that can be easily parked in an ashtray. Because only a handful of these cars were made before the design was changed, they're often called the "holy grail" of Hot Wheels collecting.

Next year's market could get even hotter as Mattel gears up to celebrate the 40th birthday of its Hot Wheels line. Still, collectors like Lombari insist it's their love for the cars themselves, not the toys' resale value, that drives them to buy every make, model, and prototype they can find. Old or new, rare or not.

"We love the art, the science, the concepts behind these cars," says Lombari, showing a reporter the sprawling Hot Wheels collection he keeps at his farmhouse in Johnston. "I didn't start out to be a collector. I just bought what I liked, and it snowballed from there."

Lombar i, 54, has built a collection worth well into six figures, he estimates. It wasn't until 14 years ago, however, when his son took an interest in the Hot Wheels cars boxed away in a closet, that Lombar i got serious about upgrading his stockpile.

The most he's ever paid for a car? "I don't really know," he says. "But I have paid $1,200 for one guy's collection. And one car I bought on eBay for $100, a customized prototype, is worth $1,000 at least."

Hot Wheels have never not been popular, it seems.

An instant hit when they debuted in 1968, the 3-inch-long cars were Mattel's answer to the then-popular Matchbox line. (Mattel cofounder Elliot Handler was also looking for a toy that would appeal to young boys the way Barbie dolls enchanted young girls.) Costing less than a dollar each, they rolled easily along a plastic track and were cooler looking than other die-cast cars, with features like working suspensions, showroom-quality paint jobs, and wheels etched with a jazzy red line around each rim.

Mike Zarnock , 49, has written several books on Hot Wheels and will be a celebrity guest at tomorrow's event in Rhode Island. The cars' popularity, he says, was closely linked to America's auto mania circa the late-1960s, which took root in California and spread to the rest of the country. A golden era of muscle cars and hot rods captured the imaginations of millions of baby-boomer boys.

"Boys could suddenly race their own little hot rods, the kind they could buy for 69 cents," Zarnock says. "Most collectors today are in their 40s and 50s and owned these toys when they were little. It brings them back to a more peaceful time in their childhood."

Mattel produced 16 Hot Wheels models the first year. After sales far exceeded company projections, it began cranking out dozens more models annually, varying details like paint jobs and wheel styles until it had created a large constellation of cars and accessories. Entire new lines were also introduced in the 1970s (Sizzlers), '80s (Hot Ones), and '90s (Treasure Hunt Vehicles), the latter pitched specifically to collectors. As more adults got into the collecting game, the artists and designers behind the cars became household names and sought-after celebrities.

Wood joined Mattel in 1969 and says it wasn't until 1995 that the toy company realized how much the market had expanded.

"After Christmas, Hot Wheels sold almost as well, which was unusual," he recalls. "We said, wait a minute -- it's adults who are buying these, not just kids."

Mattel continues to roll out about 250 new models a year. More than 3 billion cars have been produced to date, according to company figures, comprising more than 800 models and 11,000 variations thereof. Their price has remained low, however, making the cars both affordable and collectible. On the other hand, says Spaulding, "flea markets and yard sales are not what they used to be. Now this stuff gets put on eBay. It's easier to find the cars, but you'll pay more for them." (A search yesterday on eBay for "Hot Wheels" found 18,950 items.)

Spaulding has searched stores from Mexico to Qatar looking for prized specimens. He and Lombari get together for breakfast several times a week before heading to Target to scout out new models that might have arrived overnight.

"If it says Hot Wheels," says Spaulding, "I've got to have it."

Joseph P. Kahn can be reached at jkahn@globe.com.